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INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE. 


TO  A 


COURSE  OF  LECTURES 


ON  THE 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  OF  PHYSIC 

CONTAINING 

OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  INDUCTIVE  SYSTEM  OF  PROSECUTING 
MEDICAL  INQUIRIES; 

AND 

A  TRIBUTE  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  THE  LATE 

DR.  BENJAMIN  RUSH. 

DELIVERED 
AT  THE  COLLEGE  OF  PHYSICIANS  AND  SURGEONS, 

ON  THE  THIRD   OF   NOVEMBER,   1813. 


BY  DAVID  HOSACK,  M.  D.  F.  L.  S. 

)>< 

PROFESSOR  OF  THE  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  OF  PHYSIC  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE  IN  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  THE  STATE  OF  NEW-YORK. 


NEW-YORK: 

PRINTED  BY  C.  S.  VAN  WINKLE, 

No.  122  Water-street. 

1313. 


^ 


COLUMBIAN 


19 


d,  /  , 


New-York,  December  G,  1813. 
Sir, 

The  great  satisfaction  which  was  universally  expressed,  on  the  delivery  of  the 
Discourse  introductory  to  your  course  of  Lectures  on  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Physic, 
in  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  as  well  as  the  excellent  eulogy  it  contained  on 
that  ornament  of  the  profession,  the  illustrious  Benjamin  Rush,  have  induced  the  Medicaj 
and  Surgical  Society  of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New-York  to  appoint  us  a  committee 
to  request  a  copy  of  the  same  for  publication.  Your  consent  will  confer  a  favour  not  only 
on  the  Society,  by  whose  authority  we  have  the  honour  to  act,  but  on  every  cultivator  of 
medicine,  and  every  lover  of  general  science. 

With  due  respect,  we  are,  Sir, 

Your  obedient  servants, 

JOHN  SCUDDER, 
WILLIAM  P.  aUITMAN 
To  David  Hosack,  M.  D. 


New-York,  December  6.,  1813. 
Gentlemen, 

I  receive  with  emotions  of  great  sensibility  and  gratitude,  the  flattering  resolution 
which  you  have  conveyed  from  the  Medical  and  Surgical  Society  of  the  University  of  the 
State  of  New- York.  My  respect  for  that  institution  induces  a  compliance  on  my  part 
with  their  request.  I  must  be  permitted,  however,  to  observe,  that  the  merit  which  they 
have  assigned  to  that  discourse,  is  chiefly  lobe  ascribed  to  the  very  important  subjects  to 
which  it  relates ;  especially,  the  memory  of  that  distinguished  physician,  the  late  Dr 
Benjamin  Rush,  whose  services  to  our  profession  must  ever  awaken  an  interest  in  the 
bosom  of  every  pupil  and  practitioner  of  medicine. 
I  am,  Gentlemen, 

With  sentiments  of  esteem  and  respect, 
Yours, 

DAVID  HOSACK. 
To  Mr  .  John  Scudder,  and  Mr.  Wm.  F.  Quitman, 
Committee,  &c. 


*:v 


INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE,  &c 


GENTLEMEKT, 

Amidst  the  numerous  improvements  which  have  recently 
faken  place  in  the  literary  establishments  of  the  city  and  state 
of  New-York,  the  institution  of  a  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons,  exclusively  devoted  to  the  great  purposes  of  medi- 
cal education,  is  certainly  an  event  deserving  the  highest 
commendation.  It  reflects  equal  honour  upon  its  founders, 
the  Regents  of  the  University,  and  upon  the  Legislature,  from 
whom  it  has  received  its  first  endowment  and  patronage. 
This  institution  was  first  projected,  and  a  law  passed,  au- 
thorizing the  Regents  of  the  University  to  carry  it  into 
effect,  as  early  as  1791  ;  but  motives  of  respect  to  the 
Trustees  of  Columbia  College,  who  had  annexed  a  medical 
school  to  that  seminary  of  learning,  prevented  the  Regents 
from  carrying  the  views  of  the  Legislature  into  operation  until 
1807,  when  a  charter  was  first  granted  for  that  purpose. 

The  exercise  of  the  power  delegated  to  the  Regents  by  the 
act  of  the  Legislature  referred  to,  has  afforded  just  cause  of 
congratulation  to  the  friends  of  science,  as  an  event,  of  all 
©thers,  calculated  to  advance  the  usefulness  and  respectabi- 

[2] 


( ti ) 

lily  of  the  medical  profession,  the  celebrity  of  the  state,  and 
the  honour  of  our  country.  That  the  high  expectations 
which  were  entertained  of  the  benefits  that  would  flow  to 
the  community  from  its  establishment  were  well  founded, 
the  history  of  the  College,  even  during  the  short  period  it 
has  been  in  operation,  abundantly  testifies  :  for,  during  the 
six  sessions  that  have  elapsed,  nearly  four  hundred  gentle- 
men have  received  the  benefits  of  instruction  afforded  at 
this  establishment,  and  of  that  number  about  forty  have 
been  admitted  to  the  honours  of  graduation. 

But  the  Regents  of  the  University,  as  well  as  the  members 
of  the  profession  in  general,  have  ever  been  duly  sensible  of 
the  benefits  that  would  result  from  an  union  of  the  Professors 
of  this  College  with  those  constituting  the  Faculty  of  Physic 
of  Columbia  College.  Impressed  with  the  importance  of 
such  union,  the  Regents  of  the  University,  in  the  winter  of 
1811,  respectfully  solicited  the  friendly  offices  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  of  Columbia  College  in  combining  the  two  medi- 
cal institutions.  This  event,  so  desirable  in  itself,  and  which 
promises  to  be  productive  of  signal  and  permanent  advantages 
to  the  profession  and  the  community,  has  at  length  been  hap- 
pily accomplished. 

Permit  me,  gentlemen,  students  of  medicine,  to  offer  you 
my  congratulations  upon  the  favourable  auspices  under  which 
the  present  session  of  this  College  commences  :  for  to  you 
it  must  prove  peculiarly  beneficial ;  as  in  no  other  part  of 
the  United  States  can  you  obtain  so  extensive  a  system  of 
medical  education  as  that  now  afforded  by  this  university. 


(7) 

But  the  establishment  of  this  College,  and  the  ultimate  union 
of  the  Medical  Schools  of  New-York,  constitute  an  important 
era  in  the  history  of  our  state  ;  and  may  I  not  add,  in  the 
history  of  medical  science  ?  For  what  advantages  and  im- 
provements may  we  not  reasonably  anticipate  from  the  unit- 
ed labours  of  those  who  now  occupy  the  several  professor- 
ships of  this  College,  and  of  the  numerous  pupils  who  may 
be  expected  hereafter  to  resort  to  this  city  for  instruction  ? 
New- York,  in  her  commercial  and  agricultural  character, 
has  long  been  distinguished.      In  these  respects,  she  has 
justly  been  considered  one  of  the  most  important  states  of 
the  union  ;  but  when  we  take  into  view  the  immense  provi- 
sion she  has  made  for  common  schools  ;  the  extensive  pecu- 
niary contributions  made  to  her  numerous  academies  ;  the 
appropriations  granted  to  her  different  colleges  ;  the  incor- 
poration of  new  literary  societies  in  different  parts  of  her 
extensive  territory  ;  the  acts  lately  passed  for  the  promo- 
tion  of  medical  science  ;   the  incorporation   of  state  and 
county  medical  societies  ;  the  liberal  provision  made  for  that 
invaluable  charity  and  practical   school  of  medicine,    the 
New- York  Hospital ;  and  the  establishment  and  endowment 
of  the  Institution  in  which  we  are  now  convened,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  her  pre-eminence  is  not  confined  to  her  popu- 
lation, her  commerce,  or  her  agriculture,  but  that  she  is, 
equally  distinguished  for  her  protection  and  cultivation  of 
the  arts  and  sciences,  and  shortly  must  combine  every  ad- 
vantage that  the  most  favoured  states  of  the  union  may  have 
individually  enjoyed. 


(«) 

My  anticipations  lead  me  still  further  :  When  peace  may 
be  restored,  and  the  benefits  of  commercial  and  literary  in- 
tercourse with  the  old  world  be  again  experienced  by  this 
western  hemisphere,  but  a  few  years  can  elapse  when  the 
universities  of  New-York,  of  Pennsylvania,  of  Massachusetts, 
of  Connecticut,  and  of  Maryland,  will  hold  an  honourable 
competition  with  the  most  distinguished  seats  of  learning 
that  now  adorn  the  European  continent. 

In  the  profession  of  medicine  it  may  already  be  said,  that 
in  the  United  States  we  possess  all  the  necessary  resources 
for  the  most  finished  system  of  education  that  can  be  obtain- 
ed in  any  part  of  the  world,  not  excepting  the  justly  cele- 
brated medical  schools  of  Edinburgh,  London,  or  Paris. 

In  anatomy,  physiology,  the  principles  and  practice  of 
surgery,  midwifery,  the  materia  medica,  chemistry,  botany, 
mineralogy,  and  other  branches  of  natural  history,  we  have 
the  most  abundant  means  of  instruction  both  practical  and 
theoretical.  And  in  the  study  of  the  theory  and  practice  of 
physic,  in  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the  diseases  of  our  coun- 
try, we  enjoy  advantages,  which,  to  the  American  pupil,  are 
superior  to  those  of  any  of  the  schools  of  the  old  world :  for 
such  is  the  influence  of  soil,  climate,  vicissitudes  of  season,  and 
the  state  of  society,  upon  acute  diseases,  that  in  this  country 
they  exhibit  in  many  respects  a  character  different  from  those 
of  Great  Britain  or  of  the  continent  of  Europe.  Hence  it  hap- 
pens, that  the  American  physician,  who  may  have  had  all  the 
advantages  of  a  foreign  course  of  study,  who  may  have  enjoyed 
all  the  benefits  of  instruction  which  the  infirmary  of  Edinburgh 


(9  ) 

or  the  hospitals  of  London  or  Paris  afford,  if  he  has  not  pre 
viously  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  febrile  and  other  acute 
diseases  of  this  climate,  upon  his  return  to  his  native  coun- 
try has  still  the  most  important  practical  lessons  to  learn, 
and  which  experience  alone  can  supply.  In  this  respect, 
you  have  advantages  at  home  which  you  cannot  obtain 
abroad ;  nay,  more,  although  we  have  been  indebted  to  Europe 
for  most  of  the  knowledge  we  possess  in  the  healing  art,  the 
European  physician  has  still  much  to  receive  in  return :  he 
has  yet  to  learn  the  history  of  the  febrile  and  other  diseases 
of  this  country  ;  the  varieties  they  exhibit ;  the  effect  of  pe- 
culiarities of  constitution  and  climate ;  the  causes  which  pro- 
duce them,  and  the  various  modes  of  treatment  they  severally 
require,  before  he  can  attain  to  those  principles  which  are 
necessary  to  constitute  a  system  of  practice.  For  it  is  justly 
remarked  by  an  eminent  medical  writer,*  that  "  no  system  of 
medicine  can  be  perfect,  while  there  exists  a  single  disease 
which  we  do  not  know,  or  cannot  cure."  There  cannot,  there 
fore,  be  a  complete  system  of  medicine  until  our  country  has 
furnished  the  description  and  the  cure  for  all  its  peculiar  dis- 
eases. 

American  genius  has  already  largely  contributed  to  the 
improvement  of  the  arts,  and  has  done  much  in  developing 
the  principles  of  civil  government.  For  you  and  your  suc- 
cessors, probably,  is  also  reserved  the  discovery  of  those  prin- 
ciples in  medicine  which  are  necessary  to  complete  the  fabric 
that  has  been  begun  by  a  Sydenham,   a  Boerhaave,  a  Hoff- 

*  Dr.  Rush. 


(10) 

Inan,  a  Cullen,  anel  other  celebrated  physicians  of  Europe. 
Cherish,  then,  the  feelings  which  this  prospective  view  ex- 
cites, and  let  your  exertions  correspond  with  the  obligation 
it  imposes. 


The   Practice   of  Physic,  which,   in  connexion   with. 
Clinical  Medicine,  it  is  my  province  to  teach  in  this  Uni- 
versity, is  very  properly  defined,   by  a  great  systematic 
Writer,    to   be  the    art  of   discerning,  distinguishing,   pre- 
venting, and    curing  diseases.     The  discernment  of  a  dis- 
ease, as  Dr.  Cullen  very  properly  denominates  it,  is  only 
to  be  acquired  by  long  and  habitual  observation  at  the  bed- 
side of  the  sick,  for  it  frequently  happens,  that  not  only  the 
symptoms,  but  the  causes  of  disease,  are  so  concealed,  that 
they  escape  the  observation  both  of  the  patient  and  the  by- 
stander ;  and,  even  by  the  physician,  are  only  to  be  disco- 
vered by  habitual  attention  to  the  phenomena  of  health  as 
well  as  the  symptoms  of  disease.     But  this  discernment  ad- 
mits of  still  more  extensive  application,  as  it  presents  to  the 
mind  those  circumstances  attendant  upon  diseases,  which  no 
language  can  define.     For  although  books  of  practice,  and 
systems  of  nosology  may  furnish  the  description  of  the  symp- 
toms of  disease,  and  faithfully  delineate  the  more  prominent 
features  by  which  they  are  characterized,   there  are  certain 
nicer  shades  of  discrimination,  which  frequent  converse  with 
the  sick  can  alone  detect :  for  diseases,  like  plants  and  animals. 


(11 ) 

have  their  peculiarities  of  character,  which  no  system  of  no 
sology  will  supply,  no  description,  however  voluminous  or  mi- 
nute, can  impart,  which  no  medical  Lavater  has  yet  delinea- 
ted, and  with  which  practice  alone  can  make  us  acquainted- 
It  is  only  the  practical  botanist  who  can  distinguish  plants 
which  have  a  close  resemblance.     The  eye  of  the  practical 
physician,  in  like  manner,  when  quickened  by  habit,  readily 
distinguishes  one  form  of  fever  from  another,  but  which  are 
ail  confounded  in  the  eyes  of  the  hasty  observer,  or  of  him 
whose  preconceived  notions  have  interposed  a  medium  which 
obscures  his  vision.     But  this  knowledge  of  the  symptoms  of 
disease  is  not  sufficient  to  lead  us   to  their  prevention  and 
cure.     Whatever  may  be  the  readiness  with  which  diseases 
may  be  perceived,  or  however  minute  may  be  our  acquaint- 
ance with  the  varied  phenomena  they  exhibit,  it  is  only  the 
knowledge  of  the  various  causes  by  which  they  are  produced, 
and  of  the  structure  of  the  system  upon  which  they  operate, 
that  can  direct  us  to  a  safe  and  judicious  practice;  for,  from 
these  sources  alone,  the  great  principles  upon  which  the  treat- 
ment of  disease  is  to  be  conducted  must  be  derived. 

These  causes  are  of  three  kinds :  such  as  are  generally  in- 
herent in  our  frame,  and  predispose  the  system  to  be  acted 
upon  ;  those  which  are  the  most  immediate,  and  for  the  most 
part  external  agents  in  exciting  disease  ;  and  lastly,  the  proxi 
mate  cause,  which  denotes  the  condition  of  the  part  affected, 
or  of  the  whole  system,  and  upon  the  change  or  removal  of 
which  the  corresponding  changes  or  removal  of  the  disease 
depends.     To  use  the  elegant  language  of  Dr.  Gregory,  thaJ 


(  12  ;' 

ornament  of  our  profession  and  of  classical  literature,  "  causa 
proxima  est,  quae  presens,  morbum  facit,  sublata  tollit,  muta- 
ta  mutat."^ 

The  theory  of  physic,  therefore,  may  be  defined  to  be,  that 
fsystem  of  principles  which  is  deduced  from  a  knowledge  of 
the  human  structure,  and  of  the  predisposing,  exciting,  and 
proximate  causes  of  disease,  and  by  which  the  practice  of  me- 
dicine is  to  be  directed.  By  many,  however,  the  term  theory 
has  been  abused,  by  considering  it  as  synonymous  with  every 
hypothesis  that  has  been  promulgated  for  the  purpose  of  ex- 
plaining the  phenomena  of  diseases,  and  with  which  medicine, 
like  every  other  branch  of  philosophy  >  has  in  all  ages  been, 
corrupted.  The  question  then  presents  itself,  by  what  pro- 
cess are  we  to  attain  to  those  principles  so  necessary  as  sub- 
servient to  practice?  I  answer,  by  accurate  observation, 
judicious  experiment^  and  cautious  induction  from  the 
facts  which  they  present.  These  are  the  sources  whence 
was  deduced  that  luminous  system  of  philosophical  in 
vestigation  introduced  into  physics  by  Lord  Bacon,  Robert 
Boyle,  and  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  They  are  the  same  sources 
whence  those  celebrated  metaphysicians,  Reid,  Gerard, 
Campbell,  and  Stewart,  have  drawn  those  principles  which 
have  recently  been  applied,  with  so  much  success,  in  explain- 
ing the  phenomena  of  mind.  And  from  the  same  sources,  as  ex- 
emplified in  the  pages  of  Hippocrates,  Sydenham*  and  Boer- 
baave,  are  to  be  derived  those  principles  in  medicine  which 

*  Conspectus  medicine 


(  13  ) 

can  alone  conduct  us  to  a  judicious  and  successful  prac* 
tice.  Suffer  me  to  arrest  your  attention  in  the  contemplation 
of  those  distinguished  benefactors  to  medical  science. 

Anterior  to  the  days  of  Hippocrates,  we  have  no  traces  of 
any  thing  like  theory  or  principles  in  medicine,  much  less  a 
regular  system  of  practice.  On  the  contrary,  before  his 
time,  the  only  medical  knowledge  which  existed,  was  the  re- 
suit  of  random  experience,  or  accidental  observation,  of  the 
effects  of  remedies  in  particular  diseases ;  totally  uninfluenced 
by  principles  derived  from  the  structure  of  the  human  frame, 
the  symptoms  of  disease,  or  the  causes  which  produced  them. 
The  practice  of  that  day  was  consequently  purely  empiri- 
cal, in  the  strict  etymological  sense  of  the  term  ;  but  it  is  to 
be  observed,  that  at  that  early  period  of  society,  the  diseases 
of  mankind  were  few  in  number  when  compared  with  those 
which  intemperance,  luxury,  and  what  are  called  the  refine- 
ments of  civilized  life,  have  since  introduced. 

Hippocrates  was  the  first  physician,  of  whom  we  have  any 
record,  who  attempted  to  deduce  from  the  facts  which  were 
presented  to  him,  certain  principles  upon  which  to  conduct 
the  cure  of  diseases.  He,  therefore,  first  united  the  theory 
with  the  practice  of  physic ;  but  it  was  not  that  speculative 
theory  which  proceeds  from  hypothesis  to  facts,  but  from 
facts  to  principles.  Hippocrates  was  in  medicine  what  Lord. 
Bacon  was  in  philosophy :  he  first  pointed  out  the  true  road 
to  correct  knowledge  in  our  art.  Permit  me  to  devote  a  few 
moments  to  this  grateful  theme,  while  I  endeavour  to  res- 
cue his  venerable  name  from  the  imputations  which  have 

[3]  . 


(  14  ) 

been  cast  upon  it,  even  by  Lord  Verulam  himself,  and  who 
it  is  more  than  to  be  suspected,  drew  from  the  works  of  Hip- 
pocrates, with  which  he  was  intimately  acquainted,*  that 
Very  system  of  investigation  which  characterizes  the  Novum 
Organum,  but  which  no  less  distinguishes  the  writings  of  our 
great  progenitor 

Hippocrates  was  born  in  the  island  of  Cos,  about  four  huu- 
dred  years  before  Christ.  At  that  memorable  period  of  Gre^ 
cian  splendour,  in  which  Apelles,  Praxiteles,  and  Demosthe- 
nes, adorned  the  several  arts  of  painting,  sculpture  and  elo- 
quence.. Hippocrates  was  not  less  distinguished  for  his  im- 
provement in  the  healing  art,  and  for  which  he  received  not 
only  a  crown  of  gold,  but  the  highest  honours  Athens  could 
bestow.  Having  applied  himself  with  indefatigable  industry 
to  the  various  branches  of  human  learning,  then  most  gene- 
rally taught ;  having  become  a  proficient  in  the  philosophy  of 
the  schools  of  Cnidus  and  of  Cos,  and  afterwards  added  to  his 
stock  of  knowledge  by  travel ;  with  a  mind  thus  enriched, 
and  a  bodily  frame  no  less  vigorous  than  his  mind,  (for  it  sus- 
tained him  upwards  of  an  hundred  years)  he  entered  upon  the 
practice  of  physic. 

Here  his  talents  appear  eminently  great.  The  same 
system  of  inductive  reasoning,  which  was  afterwards 
adopted  by  Lord  Bacon,  was  no  less  the  guide  of  Hip- 
pocrates. For  it  was  the  maxim  of  the  latter,  as  of  the 
former,  that  every  principle  should  be  founded  upon   the 

*  Bacon  on  the  ;Vdv  .ncement  of  Learning,  book  II.    See  his  works,  vol.  1.  p- 
122,  &c.    Lond.  Ed.  1803, 


(  15  ) 

firm  basis  of  observation  and  experience,  and  that  the  only 
correct  mode  of  reasoning  is  that  which  proceeds  from  the  ef- 
fects to  the  causes  which  produce  them.     With  this  view  he 
not  only  availed  himself  of  that  mass  of  facts  which  the  temples 
of  Greece  supplied,*  but  he  patiently  sat  down  at  the  bedside 
of  the  sick,  recorded  every  successive  symptom  of  disease, 
the  changes  it  underwent,  as  well  as  the  manner  of  its  termi- 
nation, whether  in  the  dissolution  or  the  recovery  of  his  pa- 
tient.    Although  he  was  unacquainted  with  the   circulation 
of  the  blood,  or  the  value  of  the  pulse  as  the  index  of  dis- 
ease, he  carefully  attended  to  every  change  in  the  respira- 
tion of  his  patient,  which  led  him  to  conclusions  equally  cor- 
rect ;  nor  was  he  less  attentive  to  the  various  secretions  of  the 
system,  both  in  the  healthy  and  in  the  morbid  state.     Indeed, 
so  minute  is  the  description  which  he  gives  of  the  various  ap- 
pearances the  secretion  from  the  lungs  undergoes  in  the  dif- 
ferent stages  of  pneumonic  inflammation,  that  to  him  alone  are 
we  yet,  at  this  very  day,  indebted,  not  only  for  the  best,  but 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  the  only  correct  and  satisfactory 
description  that  has  been  given  of  that  disease.     Although 
totally  unacquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  materials  con- 
stantly emanating  from  the  surface  of  the  body  in  perspira- 
tion, and  which  is  but  of  recent  discovery,  he  well  knew  the 
importance  of  that  function,  both  in  health  and  disease.     But 
the  observations  of  Hippocrates  were  not  confined  to  the 
human  body,  and  to  the  phenomena  it  presents  in  the  morbid 

*  VideCoacae  prasnotio.  Lib.  Praenotion,  I.  Prasdiet.  11- 


( w ) 

state :  the  action  of  every  external  agent  no  less  attracted 
his  observant  eye.  The  air  he  breathed,  the  water  he  drank, 
the  earth  he  trod  upon,  alike  became  the  subjects  of  his  at- 
tention, as  far  as  they  were  supposed  to  exert  an  influence 
upon  our  system.*  Nor  were  these  the  limits  of  his  observa- 
tion :  The  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies ;  their  influ- 
ence upon  our  planet  and  upon  our  frame,  were  also  embra- 
ced in  his  extended  view.f  From  data  such  as  these,  and 
from  a  long  and  extensive  experience,  he  founded  and  built 
up  a  system  of  pure  and  rational  philosophy.  As  the  great 
object  of  all  his  labours  was  to  arrive  at  truth,  and  as  Bacon 
discarded  the  logical  definitions  and  distinctions  of  Aristotle, 
so  did  Hippocrates  reject  the  principal  hypothesis  of  Py- 
thagoras and  the  other  mysterious  dogmata  of  the  sophists  of 
his  age.  Governed  by  the  true  spirit  of  what  has  lately  re- 
ceived the  appellation  of  Newtonian  philosophy,  he  admit- 
ted so  much  only  as  enabled  him  to  reason  more  justly  in 
investigating  the  causes,  and  in  discovering  the  method  of 
cure  in  diseases.  As  the  philosophy  of  Bacon  differed  from 
the  fashionable  logic,  or  syllogistic  form  of  demonstration, 
which,  until  his  time,  was  almost  universally  received ; 
equally  great  was  the  difference  between  the  method  of  Hip- 
pocrates and  that  of  his  predecessors. 

But  while  we  offer  the  tribute  due  to  this  great  philosopher 
and  physician,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  his  knowledge  of  the 
internal  structure  of  the  human  frame  was  necessarily  limited, 


*  Hippoc.  de  Morb.  Epidem.  Lib.  l,  2, 3,  &c.  et  de  Aere,  Aqui?,  et  Locis. 
?  Vide  Lib.  citat.  et  in  aphorism.  Sect.  3,  4, 


(  17  ) 

and,  ia  many  respects,  erroneous.  But  although,  as  has  al- 
ready been  intimated,  he  was  ignorant  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood  ;  although  he  confounded  an  artery  with  a  vein,  and  a 
nerve  with  a  tendon,  he  effected,  even  in  his  own  time,  more 
real  improvements  in  the  healing  art  than  all  his  predecessors 
had  done  in  the  space  of  two  thousand  years  before  him  ;  and, 
we  may  add,  more  than  all  his  successors  did  in  two  thousand 
years  after  him.  But  although  he  lived  in  the  infancy  of 
medicine,  his  works,  like  those  standards  of  perfection,  the 
columns  of  Grecian  architecture,  will  ever  remain  the  admi- 
ration of  the  world,  and  the  best  models  for  our  imitation. 
"His  fame,"  to  employ  the  language  of  an  able  and  eloquent 
writer,^  "  like  a  stupendous  and  solitary  mountain,  seems  to 
have  acquired  new  height  by  the  wasting  effects  of  time  upon 
the  adjacent  country." 

After  the  death  of  Hippocrates,  little  was  done  to  complete 
the  building  of  that  fabric  of  which  he  had  laid  the  founda- 
tion. But  while  the  example  which  he  sat  was  imitated,  and 
the  road  he  pointed  out  was  followed,  though  with  unequal 
steps,  there  was  still  a  gradual  but  a  sensible  augmentation  to 
the  stock  of  medical  knowledge.  Hippocrates  was  succeeded 
by  Plato  and  Aristotle,  who  concurred,  though  in  different 
ways,  to  check  the  progress  of  medicine  for  many  centuries. 
They  corrupted  almost  every  branch  of  human  learning.  In 
the  room  of  the  Hippocratic  method  of  induction,  were  now 
substituted  captious  disputations  and  syllogistic  quibbles. — 
The  mode  of  reasoning  which  they  adopted,  though  it  afford^ 

*  Dr.  Rush. 


(  18) 

<ed  some  aid  in  the  detection  of  sophistry,  gave  little  assistance 
in  the  investigation  and  discovery  of  truth.  In  short,  instead 
of  having  recourse  to  observation  and  experiments,  they  mul- 
tiplied hypothetical  propositions,  confounded  realities  with 
fictions,  preferred  words  to  things :  in  the  language  of  Lord 
Bolingbroke,  "  they  invented  systems  more  baneful  to  truth 
and  real  learning,  than  the  ravages  of  the  Goths  and  Van- 
dals." 

But  the  circumstance,  which  of  all  others,  gave  cur- 
rency to  the  Aristotelian  doctrines  in  medicine,  was  their 
adoption  by  Galen,  a  man  of  great  learning,  little  inferior  to 
Aristotle  himself  in  genius,  and  an  ardent  admirer  of  his  pe- 
culiar talents.  He  laboured  with  great  zeal  to  complete  and 
offer  to  the  world  a  new  theory  in  medical  science.  His  fer- 
tile imagination  supplied  the  place  of  facts,  and  as  he  infused 
into  all  his  writings  the  subtle  distinctions  and  metaphysical 
notions  of  Aristotle,  he  so  far  corrupted,  more  than  any  other 
writer  in  medicine,  the  true  spirit  of  philosophical  investiga- 
tion. Yet  it  deserves  to  be  remembered,  and  to  the  immor- 
tal honour  of  Hippocrates,  that  Galen  himself  was  aware,  that 
the  practice  of  Hippocrates  was  the  most  just  and  rational, 
and  that  he  himself  pursued  it  in  the  treatment  of  diseases. 
What  progress  the  doctrines  of  Galen  made,  and  how  long 
they  were  implicitly  adopted,  are  facts  too  familiarly  known 
to  require  further  mention  on  this  occasion.  But  happily  for 
mankind,  and  the  interests  of  science,  towards  the  conclusion 
of  the  sixteenth,  and  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
another  galaxy  of  talents  appeared  that  dissipated  those  clouds 


(  19  ) 
with  which  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  had  enveloped  the 
world,  and  which  both  philosophers  and  physicians,  Ixiou- 
like,  had  embraced  for  nearly  fourteen  hundred  years  :  You 
will  anticipate  me  in  the  names  of  Bacon,  Boyle,  Galileo, 
Locke,  and  Newton.  It  was  not  until  this  period  that  phi- 
losophers and  physicians  "  emancipated  themselves  from  their 
vassalage  to  Aristotle  and  Galen."  It  was  not  until  this  pe- 
riod that  the  human  mind  again  recovered  its  freedom  and 
dignity,  and  genuine  science  began  to  develope  what  had  re- 
mained involved  in  the  deepest  obscurity.  To  commence 
(his  illustrious  work  was  reserved  for  Lord  Bacon,  a  man  in 
every  respect  qualified  for  so  great  an  undertaking.  By  the. 
publication  of  his  Instauration  of  the  Sciences,  he  rescued 
reason  and  truth  from  the  slavery  in  which  they  so  lone- 
had  been  held;  he  effected  a  total  revolution  in  the  empire 
of  science,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  inductive  system  of 
philosophizing,  or  rather,  as  we  have  already  attempted  to. 
show,  he  revived  the  Hippocratic  mode  of  acquiring  know- 
ledge. 

Nearly  cotemporary  with  those  distinguished  characters 
was  Thomas  Sydenham.  As  he  possessed  a  strength  of  un- 
derstanding, an  accuracy  of  discernment,  and  an  ardour  of  cu- 
riosity no  less  rare  than  desirable,  he  soon  perceived  the  ab 
surdity  and  pernicious  effects  of  the  visionary  theories  which 
had  preceded.  He  accordingly  devoted  the  most  indefatiga- 
ble attention  to  the  study  of  nature,  and  what  he  considered 
of  nearly  the  same  importance,  the  aphorisms  and  other 
Writings  of  Hippocrates.     He  caught  the  true  spirit  of  phi 


(  20  ) 

losophy  which  they  inculcate,  and  was  the  first  in  rnedicine3 
after  the  revival  of  learning,  who  adopted  the  inductive  me- 
thod of  Bacon,  and  enforced  the  plan  of  study  first  pursued 
by  the  father  of  medicine.  In  his  preface  to  his  works  he 
states,  that  we  are  to  arrive  at  perfection  in  our  science  by 
two  means ;  a  faithful  relation  of  the  causes  and  symptoms  of 
diseases,  and  from  thence  deducing  and  establishing  their 
method  of  cure.  Like  his  great  prototype,  he  accurately 
noticed  the  phenomena  and  progress  of  diseases,  and  the 
manner  of  their  termination,  as  well  as  the  effects  of  medicine 
and  diet,  in  their  prevention  and  cure.  He  also,  more  mi- 
nutely than  any  other  writer,  recorded  the  prevailing  epi- 
demics of  each  year ;  the  influence  of  seasons,  climate,  and 
the  sensible  qualities  of  the  atmosphere.  Want  of  time,  how- 
ever, forbids  that  1  should  here  enlarge  upon  his  merits.  But 
while  I  recommend  to  you  a  close  and  repeated  examination 
of  his  writings,  in  order  to  enable  you  the  better  to  appre- 
ciate them,  I  shall  conclude  this  imperfect  sketch  of  his  cha- 
racter in  the  words  of  his  celebrated  successor :  "  He  was  the 
ornament  of  England,  the  Apollo  of  the  art,  whom  I  never 
consider  but  my  mind  presents  me  with  the  true  picture  of  an 
Hippocratic  physician,  and  to  whom  physic  is  so  much  in- 
debted, that  all  I  can  say  will  fall  far  short  of  his  merit."* 
Let  us  now  take  a  brief  notice  of  another  individual,  to 
whom,  next  to  Hippocrates  and  Sydenham,  our  profession  is 
most  indebted — the  illustrious  Boerhaave,  who  was  no  less 

-  Boerhaave. 


(21   ) 

eminent  in  "medicine  than  Sir  Isaac  Newton  in   philosophy. 
Boerhaave  flourished  about  forty  years  after  Sydenham.     I 
shall  content  myself  with  giving  you  some  idea  of  the  extent 
of  the  knowledge  which  he  possessed,  rather  than  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  he  acquired  it.    He  was  well  versed  in  the  Latin, 
Greek,  Hebrew,    and  other  of  the  oriental   languages,  and 
also  in   those  of  modern  Europe.     He   was  a  profound  ma- 
thematician,  and  algebraist,    and  a  remarkable  proficient  in 
the  philosophy  both   of  mind  and  matter.     He  studied  the 
works  of  Hippocrates,  and  all  the  Greek,  Roman,  and  Arabian 
physicians,  as  well  as  those  of  the  most  eminent  among  the 
moderns.      He  was  the  advocate  of  experimental  science, 
and  was  himself  a  distinguished  practical  anatomist  and  che- 
mist.    In  botanical  knowledge  he  was  among  the  first  of  his 
age,  and  in  his  acquaintance  with  the  various  departments  of 
the  materia  medica,  exceeded  by  none.      He  thus  furnishes 
the  most  striking  example  to  show,  that  it  is  practicable  for  a 
single  individual  to  excel  in  almost  every  branch  of  human 
learning.     Of  the  numerous  writers  on  medical  science  whom 
he  studied,   he  particularly  admired  Hippocrates  among  the 
ancients,  and   Sydenham  among  the  moderns.     Upon  his 
election  to  the  professorship  of  medicine,  in  1701,  he  pro- 
nounced an  oration  "  de  commendando  studio  Hippocratico," 
in  which  he  not  only  recommended  the  writings  of  the  Coan 
sage  as  among  the  most  valuable  sources  of  practical  informa- 
tion,  but  particularly  enforced  the  Hippocraik  mode  of  con. 
ducting  medical  inquiries. 

if] 


(22) 

He  delivered  lectures  on  the  theory  and  practice  of  medi- 
cine, botany  and  chemistry,  with  the  greatest  clearness,  pre- 
cision and  eloquence  ;  and  had  such  a  conflux  of  students, 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  for  his  hearers,  as  never,  probably, 
had  been  presented  before  any  professor.  Upon  the  death 
pf  Le  Mort,  he  was  placed  at  the  head  of  every  branch  of 
medicine,  when  the  number  of  his  students  became  so  great, 
that,  according  to  his  biographer,  Dr.  Matty,  Leyden  itself 
was  scarcely  sufficient  to  accommodate  them.  In  his  Insti- 
tutions of  Medicine  and  his  Aphorisms,  which  have  been  pro- 
nounced two  of  the  most  concise,  yet  comprehensive  works 
which  have  ever  been  presented  to  the  medical  world,  and 
which  have  been  the  text  books  of  the  universities  of  Eu- 
rope for  nearly  a  century,  you  will  find  the  result  of  all  that 
learning,  experience  and  talents,  for  which  he  was  so  emi- 
nently distinguished.  But  the  great  talents,  the  indefati- 
gable application,  and  the  extensive  knowledge  of  Boerhaave 
held  but  a  second  place  in  his  character :  In  the  language  of 
Dr.  Johnson,  "  he  was  an  admirable  example  of  temperance, 
fortitude,  humility,  and  devotion  ;"  and  we  may  add,  Chris- 
tianity enrols  his  name  among  her  firmest  and  steadiest  sup- 
porters. 

But,  gentlemen,  while  we  thus  revere  the  great  and  good 
of  the  old  world,  let  us  do  homage  to  merit  in  the  new. 
While  we  acknowledge  the  benefits  which  the  science  of 
medicine  has  received  from  the  physicians  of  Europe,  let  us 
not  be  unmindful  of  the  debt  of  gratitude  we  owe  to  a  native 
pf  our  own  soil,  who  was  no  less  an  ornament  to  human  nature, 


(23  ) 

-than  his  various  exertions  Lave  been  precious  to  his  profes- 
sion, to  science,  and  his  country. 

Your  feelings,  I  trust,  will  be  in  unison  with  mine,  while, 
in  addition  to  the  numerous  offerings  of  public  and  private 
respect,  which  have  been  paid  to  the  memory  of  Doctor 
Benjamin  Rush,  we  devote  a  few  moments  to  the  contem- 
plation of  the  professional  attainments,  the  public  services9 
the  moral  and  religious  character,  which  make  up  the  portrait 
of  that  distinguished  philosopher  and  physician. 

Doctor 'Rush  was  born  on  the  24th  of  December,  1745,  on 
Iris  father's  estate,  about  twelve  miles  from  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia. His  ancestors  followed  William  Peun  from  England 
to  Pennsylvania,  in  the  year  1683.  They  chiefly  belonged 
to  the  society  of  Quakers,  and  were  all,  as  well  as  his 
parents,  distinguished  for  the  industry,  the  virtue,  and  the 
piety,  characteristic  of  their  sect.  His  grandfather,  JameS 
Rush,  whose  occupation  was  that  of  a  gunsmith,  resided  oil 
his  estate  near  Philadelphia,  and  died  in  the  year  1727* 
His  son  John,  the  father  of  Dr.  Rush,  inherited  both  his 
trade  and  his  farm,  and  was  equally  distinguished  for  his 
industry  and  ingenuity.  He  died  while  his  son  Benjamin 
was  yet  young,  but  left  him  to  the  care  of  an  excellent  and 
pious  mother,  who  took  an  active  interest  in  his  education 
and  welfare.  In  a  letter  which  I  had  the  pleasure  to  receive 
from  Dr.  Rush,  a  short  time  before  his  death,  and  which  was 
written  upon  his  return  from  a  visit  to  the  tomb  of  his  ances- 
tors, he  thus  expresses  the  obligation  he  felt  for  the  early 
impressions  of  piety  he  had  received  from  his  parents  s 


(  24  ) 

"  I  have  acquired  and  received  nothing  from  the  world 
which  I  prize  so  highly  as  the  religious  principles  I  inherited 
from  them ;  and  I  possess  nothing  that  I  value  so  much  as 
the  innocence  and  purity  of  their  characters."* 

But  this  was  not  the  only  source  of  that  virtue  and  religion 
for  which  he  was  so  eminently  distinguished.  His  mother 
as  if  influenced  with  a  presentiment  of  the  future  destinies 
of  her  son,  resolved  to  give  him  the  advantages  of  the  best 
education  which  our  country  then  afforded : — For  this  pur- 
pose he  was  sent,  at  the  early  age  of  eight  or  nine  years,  to 
the  West  Nottingham  Grammar  School,  and  placed  under 
the  care  of  his  maternal  uncle,  the  Rev.  Doctor  Samuel 
Finley,  an  excellent  scholar  and  an  eminent  teacher,  and 
whose  talents  and  learning  afterwards  elevated  him  to  the 
Presidency  of  the  College  of  Princeton.  At  this  school 
young  Rush  remained  five  years,  for  the  purpose  of  acqui- 
ring a  knowledge  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages,  and 
other  branches  necessary  to  qualify  him,  as  preparatory  for 
a  collegiate  course  of  study.  But  under  the  tuition  and 
guidance  of  Dr.  Finley,  he  was  not  only  instructed  in 
classical  literature ; — he  also  acquired  what  was  of  no  less 
importance,  and  which  characterized  him  through  life — a 
habit  of  study  and  observation,  a  reverence  for  the  christian 
religion,  and  the  habitual  performance  of  the  duties  it  incul- 


*  The  letter  here  referred  to  was  originally  addressed,  by  Dr.  Rush,  to  theJ3on. 
John  Adams,  Esq.  late  President  of  the  United  States :  from  a  copy  of  the  same, 
sent  to  the  author  by  Dr.  Rush,  several  of  the  preceding  interesting  partieula?? 
have  been  taken, 


(25) 

cates.  For  his  accomplished  and  pious  instructor  not  only 
regarded  the  temporal,  but  the  spiritual  welfare  of  those 
committed  to  his  care. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen,  after  completing  his  course  of 
classical  studies,  he  was  removed  to  the  College  of  Prince* 
ton,  then  under  the  superinteudance  of  President  Davies, 
one  of  the  most  eloquent  preachers  and  learned  divines  our 
country  has  produced. 

At  college,  our  pupil  not  only  performed  his  duties  with 
his  usual  attention  and  success,  but  he  became  distinguished 
for  his  talents,  his  uncommon  progress  in  his  studies,  and 
especially  for  his  eloquence  in  public  speaking.  For  this 
latter  acquirement,  he  was  doubtless  indebted  to  the  exam- 
ple set  before  him  by  President  Davies,  whose  talents  as  a 
pulpit  orator  were  universally  acknowledged,  and  were  fre- 
quently the  theme  of  his  pupil's  admiration. 

Dr.  Rush  received  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts  in  the 
autumn  of  1760,  at  the  early  age  of  fifteen.  The  next  suc- 
ceeding six  years  of  his  life  were  devoted  to  the  study  of 
medicine,  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  John  Redman,  at  that 
time  an  eminent  practitioner  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
Upon  commencing  the  study  of  medicine,  the  writings  of 
Hippocrates  were  among  the  very  first  works  which  at- 
tracted his  attention  ;  and,  as  an  evidence  of  the  early  im- 
pression they  made  upon  his  mind,  and  of  the  attachment  he 
had  formed  to  them,  let  it  be  remembered,  that  Dr.  Rush, 
when  a  student  of  medicine,  translated  the  aphorisms  of  Hip- 
pocrates from  the  Greek  into  his  vernacular  tongue,  in  the 


(26) 

seventeenth  year  of  his  age.  From  this  early  exercise  kg 
probably  derived  that  talent  of  investigation,  that  spirit  of 
inquiry,  and  those  extensive  views  of  the  nature  and  causes 
of  disease,  which  give  value  to  his  writings,  and  have  added 
important  benefits  to  the  science  of  medicine.  The  same 
mode  of  acquiring  knowledge  which  was  recommended  by 
Mr.  Locke,  and  the  very  manner  of  his  commonplace  book 
was  also  early  adopted  by  Dr.  Rush,  and  was  daily  continued 
to  the  last  of  his  life.  To  his  records,  made  in  1762,  we  are 
at  this  day  indebted  for  many  important  facts  illustrative  of 
the  yellow  fever,  which  prevailed  in,  and  desolated  the  city 
of  Philadelphia,  in  that  memorable  year.  Even  in  reading, 
it  was  the  practice  of  Dr.  Rush,  and  for  which  he  was  first 
indebted  to  his  friend  Dr.  Franklin,  to  mark  wish  a  pen  or 
pencil,  any  important  fact,  or  any  peculiar  expression,  remark- 
able either  for  its  strength  or  its  elegance.  Like  Gibbon, 
"he  investigated  with  his  pen  always  in  his  hand  ^'—believ- 
ing with  an  ancient  classic,  that  to  study  without  a  pen  ie 
to  dream — "Studium  sine  calamo  somnium." 

Having  with  great  fidelity  completed  his  course  of  medical 
studies  under  Dr.  Redman,  he  embarked  for  Europe,  and 
passed  two  years  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  attending 
the  lectures  of  those  celebrated  professors,  Dr.  Monro,  Dr. 
Gregory,  Dr.  Cullen,  and  Dr.  Black. 

In  the  spring  of  1763,  after  defending  an  inaugural  disser- 
tation "  de  coctione  ciborum  in  ventriculo,"  he  received  the 
degree  of  doctor  of  medicine.  In  that  exercise  which  was 
written  with  classical  purity  and  elegance,  it  was  the  object 


(27  ) 

of  Dr.  Rush  to  illustrate,  by  experiment,  au  opinion  that  had 
been  expressed  by  Dr.  Cullen,  that  the  aliment,  in  a  few 
hours  after  being  received  into  the  stomach,  undergoes  the 
acetous  fermentation.  This  fact  he  established  by  three 
different  experiments,  made  upon  himself;  experiments, 
which  a  mind  less  ardent  in  the  pursuit  of  truth,  would 
readily  have  declined. 

From  Edinburgh  Dr.  Rush  proceeded  to  London,  where, 
in  attendance  upon  the  hospitals  of  that  city,  the  lectures  of 
its  celebrated  teachers,  and  the  society  of  the  learned,  he 
made  many  accessions  to  the  stock  of  knowledge  he  had 
already  acquired. 

In  the  spring  of  1769,  after  visiting  Paris,  he  returned  to 
his  native  country,  and  immediately  commenced  the  practice 
of  physic  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in  which  he  soon  be* 
came  eminently  distinguished. 

Few  men  have  entered  the  profession  in  any  age  or  coun- 
try with  more  numerous  qualifications  as  a  physician,  than 
those  possessed  by  Dr.  Rush.  His  gentleness  of  manner, 
his  sympathy  with  the  distressed,  his  kindness  to  the  poor, 
his  varied  and  extensive  erudition,  his  professional  acquire- 
ments, and  his  faithful  attention  to  the  sick,  all  united  in 
procuring  for  him  the  esteem,  the  respect,  and  the  confi- 
dence of  his  fellow  citizens,  and  thereby  introducing  him  to 
an  extensive  and  lucrative  practice. 

It  is  observed,  as  an  evidence  of  the  diligence  and  fidelity 
with  which  Dr.  Rush  devoted  himself  to  his  medical  studies, 
during  the  six  years  he  had  been  the  pupil  of  Dr.  Redman, 


(  28  ) 

that  he  absented  himself  from  his  business  but  two  days  in 
the  whole  of  that  period  of  time.    I  believe  it  may  also  be  said, 
that  from  the  time  he  commenced  the  practice  of  medicine  to 
the  termination  of  his  long  and  valuable  life,  except  when  con- 
fined by  sickness,  or  occupied  by  business  of  a  public  nature, 
he  never  absented  himself  from  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  nor 
omitted  the  performance  of  his  professional  duties  a   single 
day.     It  is  also  stated,  that  during  the  thirty  years  of  his  at- 
tendance as  a  physician  to  the  Pennsylvania  hospital,  such 
was  his  punctuality,  his  love  of  order,  and  his  sense  of  duty, 
that  he  not  only  made  his  daily  visit  to  that  institution,  but 
was  never  absent  ten  minutes  after  the  appointed  hour  of 
prescribing. 

In  a  few  months  after  his  establishment  in  Philadelphia? 
Dr.  Rush  was  elected  a  professor  in  the  medical  school  which 
had  then  been  recently  established  by  the  laudable  exertions 
of  Dr.  Shippen,  Dr.  Kuhn,  Dr.  Morgan,  and  Dr.  Bond.  For 
this  station  his  talents  and  education  peculiarly  qualified  him* 
As  in  the  case  of  Boerhaave,  such  too  had  been  the  atten- 
tion bestowed  by  Doctor  Rush  upon  every  branch  of  medi- 
cine, that  he  was  equally  prepared  to  fill  any  department  in 
which  his  services  might  be  required. 

The  professorships  of  anatomy,  the  theory  and  practice 
of  physic,  clinical  medicine,  and  the  materia  medica,  being 
already  occupied,  he  was  placed  in  the  chair  of  chemistry, 
which  he  filled  in  such  manner  as  immediately  to  attract  the 
attention  of  all  who  heard  him,  not  only  to  the  branch  he 
taught,  but  to  the  learning,  the  abilities,  and  eloquence,  of 
the  teacher. 


(29) 

In  the  year  1789  Dr.  Rush  was  elected  the  successor  ot 
Dr.  Morgan  to  the  chair  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  physic. 
In  1791,  upon  an  union  being  effected  between  the  college  of 
Philadelphia  and  the  university  of  Pennsylvania,  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  professorship  of  the  institutes  of  medicine  and 
clinical  practice  ;  and  in  1805,  upon  the  resignation  of  the 
learned  and  venerable  Dr.  Kuhn,  he  was  chosen  to  the  unit- 
ed professorships  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  physic  and  of 
clinical  medicine,  which  he  held  the  remainder  of  his  life. 
To  the  success  with  which  these  several  branches  of  medi- 
cine were  taught  by  Dr.  Rush,  the  popularity  of  his  lec- 
tures, the  yearly  increase  of  the  number  of  his  pupils,  the 
unexampled  growth  of  the  medical  school  of  Philadelphia, 
and  the  consequent  diffusion  of  medical  learning,  bear  ample 
testimony  ;  for,  with  all  due  respect  to  the  distinguished 
talents  with  which  the  other  professorships  of  that  university 
have  hitherto  been,  and  still  continue  to  be  filled,  it  will  be 
admitted,  that  to  the  learning,  the  abilities,  and  the  eloquence 
of  Dr.  Rush,  it  owes  much  of  that  celebrity  and  elevation  to 
which  it  has  attained.  What  Roerhaave  was  to  the  medical 
school  of  Leyden,  or  Dr.  Cullen  to  that  of  Edinburgh,  Dr. 
"Rush  was  to  the  university  of  Pennsylvania. 

But  Dr.  Rush  did  not  coufine  his  attention  and  pursuits 
either  to  the  practice  of  medicineor  to  the  dudes  of  his  profes- 
sorship: his  ardent  mind  did  not  permit  him  to  be  an  inactive 
spectator  of  those  important  public  events  which  occurred 
in  the  early  period  of  his  life. 

The  American  revolution ;  the  independence  of  his  couh- 


(  30) 

try  ;  the  establishment  of  a  new  constitution  of  government 
for  Use  United  Slates,  and  the  amelioration  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  his  own  particular  state,  all  successively  interested 
Ilia  feelings,  and  induced  him  to  take  an  active  concern  in 
the  scenes  that  were  passing.  He  held  a  seat  in  the  cele- 
brated congress  of  1776  as  a  representative  of  the  state  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  subscribed  the  ever  memorable  instrument 
of  American  independence.  In  1777,  he  was  appointed  phy- 
sician general  of  the  military  hospital  for  the  middle  depart- 
ment ;  and  in  the  year  1787  he  received  the  additional  grati- 
fication and  evidence  of  his  country's  confidence  in  his  talents, 
his  integrity,  and  his  patriotism,  by  being  chosen  a  member 
of  the  state  convention  for  the  adoption  of  the  federal  consti- 
tution. 

These  great  events  being  accomplished,  Dr.  Rush  gradual 
ly  retired  from  political  life,  resolved  to  dedicate  the  remain- 
der of  his  days  to  the  practice  of  his  profession,  the  perform- 
ance of  his  collegiate  duties,  and  the  publication  of  those  doc- 
trines and  principles  in  medicine  which  he  considered  calcu- 
lated to  advance  the  interests  of  his  favourite  science,  or  to 
diminish  the  evils  of  human  life.  In  a  letter  which  I  receiv- 
ed from  him  as  early  as  the  year  1794,  he  expresses  this  de- 
termination, adding,  "I  have  lately  become  a  mere  spectator 
of  all  public  events."  And  in  a  conversation  on  this  sub- 
ject, during  the  two  last  years  of  his  life,  he  expressed  to  me 
the  i,igh  gratification  which  he  enjoyed  in  his  medical  studies 
and  pursuits,  and  his  regret  that  he  had  not  at  a  much  earlier 


(31   ) 

period  withdrawn  his  attention  from  all  other  subjects  and 
bestowed  it  enclusively  upon  ids  profession. 

Young  gentlemen,  let  this  declaration  of  that  venerable 
character,  who,  like  Hippocrates  of  old,  well  knew  the  extent 
of  his  art  and  the  comparative  shortness  of  human  life,  im- 
press your  minds  with  the  duties  before  you;  let  it  teach 
you,  too,  the  value  of  iime,  ihat  it  may  not  be  occupied  in 
those  pursuits  which  are  unconnected  with  science  or  your 
profession ;  and,  especially,  that  it  be  not  wasted  in  idle  and 
unprofitable  amusements ;  for,  of  the  physician  it  is  not; 
enough  to  say, 

"That here  he  liv'd,  or  here  expired." 

Pope. 

Such  was  the  attachment  of  Dr.  Rush  to  his  profession, 
that  speaking  of  his  approaching  dissolution,  he  remarks, 
"when  that  time  shall  come,  I  shall  relinquish  many  attrac- 
tions to  life,  and  among  them  a  pleasure  which  to  me  has  no 
equal  in  human  pursuits  \  I  mean  that  which  I  derive  from 
studying,  teaching,  and  practising  medicine."  But  he  loved 
it  as  a  science  ;  principles  in  medicine  were  the  great  objects 
of  all  his  inquiries.  He  has  well  observed,  that  medicine 
without  principles,  is  an  humble  art,  and  a  degrading  occu- 
pation ;  but  directed  by  principles,  the  only  sure  guide  to  a 
safe  and  successful  practice— it  imparts  the  highest  elevation 
to  the  intellectual  and  mora!  character  of  man. 

But    the   high  professional  character  and  attainments  of 
Poctor  Rush,  did  not  alone  display  themselves  in  his  skill  as 


(  32) 

a  physician,  or  his  abilities  as  a  teacher ;  he  was  equally  dis- 
linguisMed  as  a  writer  and  an  author. 

The  present  occasion  does  not  allow  me  to  recite  to  you 
even  the  numerous  subjects  of  his  medical  publications  ;  much 
less  does  it  afford  an  opportunity  to  review  the  opinions 
they  contain.  In  the  ensuing  course  of  lectures  these  will  seve- 
rally fail  under  our  attention,  as  the  various  subjects  to  which 
they  relate  may  present  themselves.  Permit  me,  however, 
generally  to  observe,  that  the  numerous  facts  and  principles 
which  the  writings  of  Dr.  Rush  contain,  the  doctrines  they 
inculcate  relative  to  the  nature  and  causes  of  disease,  and  the 
improvements  they  have  introduced  into  the  practice  of  me- 
dicine, recommend  them  to  your  attentive  perusal  and  study, 
while  the  perspicuity  and  elegance  of  the  style  in  which  they 
are  written,  give  them  an  additional  claim  to  your  attention 
as  among  the  finest  models  of  composition.  The  same  re- 
marks are  equally  applicable  to  the  epistolary  stile  of  Dr. 
Rush  and  that  of  his  conversation  ;  in  both  of  which  he  emi- 
nently excelled. 

Mr.  Fox  declared  in  the  British  House  of  Commons,  that 
lie  had  learned  more  from  Mr.  Burke's  conversation  than 
from  all  the  books  he  had  ever  read.  It  may  also  be  observ- 
ed of  the  conversation  of  Dr.  Rush,  that  such  were  the 
riches  of  his  mind;  such  was  the  active  employment  of 
all    its  faculties;  so    constant   was   his  habit  of  giving  ex- 


*  For  an  ample  and  minute  account  of  the  writings  of  Dr.  Rush  the  reader  is 
particularly  referred  to  thp  excellent  and  instructive  discourse  delivered  before  the 
Medical  Society  of  Charleston,  by  the  Hon.  David  Ramsay,  M.  D. 


(   33  ) 

pression  to  his  thoughts  in  an  extensive  correspondence^ 
in  the  preparation  of  his  public  discourses,  and  in  his  daily 
intercourse  with  the  world,  that  kw  persons  ever  left  his 
society  without  receiving  instruction,  and  expressing  their 
astonishment  at  the  perpetual  stream  of  eloquence  in 
which  his  thoughts  were  communicated. 

It  has  frequently  been  the  subject  of  surprise,  that  amidst 
the  numerous  avocations  of  Dr.  Rush,  as  a  practitioner  and 
a  teacher  of  medicine,  that  he  found  leisure  for  the  com- 
position and  the  publication  of  the  numerous  medical  and  lite- 
rary works  which  have  been  the  production  of  his  pen. 

Although  Dr.  Rush  possessed  by  nature  an  active  and 
discriminating  mind,  in  which  were  blended  great  quickness 
of  perception,  and  a  retentive  memory  ;  although  he  en- 
joyed the  benefits  of  an  excellent  preliminary  and  profes- 
sional education,  it  was  only  by  habits  of  uncommon  indus- 
try, punctuality  in  the  performance  of  all  his  engagements, 
the  strictest  temperance  and  regularity  in  his  mode  of  life, 
that  enabled  him  to  accomplish  so  much  in  his  profession  and 
to  contribute  so  largely  to  the  medical  literature  of  his  coun- 
try. Dr.  Rush,  like  most  men  who  have  extended  the 
boundaries  of  any  department  of  human  knowledge ;  who 
have  contributed  to  the  improvement  of  any  art  or  science, 
was  in  habits  of  early  rising,  by  which  he  always  secured 
what  Gibbon  has  well  denominated  "  the  sacred  portion  of 
the  day." 

The  great  moralist*  justly  observes,  that  "  to  temperance 

Dr.  Johnson 


I  34  ) 

every  day  is  bright,  and  every  hour  is  propitious  to  dili- 
gence." T.-ie  extreme  temperance  of  Dr.  Rush  in  like  man- 
ner enabled  him  to  keep  his  mind  in  continual  employment, 
thereby  "setting  at  defiance  the  morning  mist  and  the  eve- 
ning damp — the  blasts  of  the  east,  and  the  clouds  of  the 
south."*  He  knew  not  that  "  lethargy  of  indolence"  that 
follows  the  inordinate  gratifications  of  the  table.  His  ciesto 
did  not  consist  in  indulgence  upon  the  bed  or  in  the  a  med 
chair,  to  recover  those  powers  which  had  been  paralysed  or 
suspended  by  an  excessive  meal,  or  the  intemperate  use  of 
vinous  or  spirituous  drinks. 

Ds  Johnson,  during  his  tour  to  the  Hebrides,  when  fa- 
tigued by  his  journey,  reti  ed  to  his  chamber  and  wrote  his 
celeb  aied  Latin  ode  addressed  to  Mrs.  Tnrale.f  Dr.  Rush,, 
in  iike  manner,  after  the  fatigues  of  professional  duty,  refresh- 
ed his  mind  by  the  perusal  of  some  favourite  poet,  some 
work  of  taste,  some  volume  of  travels,  biography,  or  history. 
These  were  the  pillows  on  which  he  sought  repose. 

Bu>  the  virtues  of  the  heart,  like  the  faculiies  of  his  mind, 
were  also  in  continued  exercise  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow 
men  ;  while  the  numerous  humane,  charitable,  and  religious 
associations,  which  do  honour  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
bear  testimony  to  the  philanthropy  and  piety  which  animat- 
ed the  bosom  of  their  departed  benefactor,  let  it  also  be 
remembered,  that,  as  with  the  good  Samaritan,  the  poor 
"were  the  objects  of  his  peculiar  care  ;  and  that  in  the  latter, 

*  Boswell,  vol.  I.  p.  260,  f  Boswell. 


(  35  ) 

and  more  prosperous  years  of  his  life,  one  seventh  of  his  in- 
come was  expended  upon  the  children  of  afflic.i ion  and  want. 
D'  Boerhaave  said  of  the  poor,  that  they  were  his  best  pa- 
tten is,  because  God  was  their  paymaster. 

Let  i,  also  be  recorded,  that  the  last  act  of  Dr.  Rush  was 
an  act  of  charity,  and  that  the  last  expression  which  fell 
from  his  lips  was  an  injunction  to  his  son,  '  Be  indulgent  to 
the  poor.' 

"  Vale  egregium  academiae  decus  !  tuum  nomen  mecum 
semper  durabit ;  et  laudes  et  honores  tui  in  ceternum.  mane- 
bunt."* 


*  These  words  were  addressed  by  Dr.  Rush,  upon  his  taking  leave  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Edinhuigh,  to  his  particular  friend  and  preceptor,  Dr.  Cullen.  Se£ 
Inaus-  Diss.  De  Coctione  Ciborum.  Edin.  1769. 


FINI  *i 


a,/ 


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.    :  22  *942 


